5mm conch punch, stretched to 7mm

By Anonymous · Sept. 28, 2008

I had unevenly pierced both of my conchs in the past 3 years, first getting a vertical industrial on my left year and following up with a conch ring on my right, not concerned about their symmetric placement. About a year ago I started to think that my ears were becoming too uneven and cluttered. I was still happy about my vertical industrial, but never really wanted the helix-to-helix industrial on my right ear. It didn't help that it took two years to fully heal. I decided that I would take out all of my other ear piercings and only have my lobes and conchs, but I wanted my conchs large gauge.

Whenever I decide on something that is more permanent, I always take a year or so to see if I still want the modification. Large gauge cartilage means always having some sort of hole in your ear, but after a year I decided that I still wanted them done and I knew exactly where to go. Fortunately I just moved back to Norway and could use my piercer in Oslo. She is the best and probably the only one I would trust with taking a big chunk out of my ears. Christiane runs an incredibly clean shop; she is super friendly, incredibly knowledgeable, and always makes me feel comfortable. I was happy to wait to have my ears done until I could have her do them.

The day of my appointment I made sure to eat about an hour before the scheduled time so that my blood sugars would be at a good level. I had read experiences of large gauge punches on BME and so many people had complained about how their conches were the most painful modification they had gotten. I was a bit worried but at the same time excited  I needed a little pain to cope with the drama of my life. I wasn't incredibly worried because my experiences with both of my conch piercings were different than what most people report -- they did not hurt very much at all (all of my upper cartilage mods, however, hurt like a bitch)  but I was still expecting a large amount of pain. However, on the day of the piercing I felt a bit out of it, and wasn't nervous about the procedure at all. In fact, I was more concerned about a piece of debris that flew into my eye as I was walking downtown  my eye was super itchy and red.

I arrived at the shop with my friend and waited for a few minutes while Christiane dealt with some customers, and then we all went into the piercing room. We chatted about modblog, tattoos and other modifications, and watched Christiane set all of the equipment up, washing her hands and changing her gloves innumerable times. We started with the right ear and my friend held my hand. Deep breath in, and out... and... crunch. The punch wasn't bad at all. Definitely not the most painful thing I have felt. Stubbing your toe is much worse, honestly. We had decided to punch at 5mm and stretch to 7mm, taking them back down to 5mm in a few weeks so that they could heal better. The taper was a different story pain wise. My cartilage was not happy about being stretched, and Christiane said she could feel that it hurt. I kicked my feet, squeezed my friend's hand, and moaned a bit. After a few seconds the jewelry was in. Christiane said she was glad she hadn't decided to stretch to two sizes
bigger, as my ear was not okay with the stretching. I was surprised how little blood there was and how easy it went, other than the taper. We took a few minutes and then moved onto the left ear. Again, I was expecting greater pain for the second round after reading experiences on BME. The left ear was less painful than the first, as the stretching went far more comfortably. It bled a bit more than the right side, but there was not a lot of blood at all. We joked about eating my cartilage as some people have written experiences about doing that. It was interesting to see how much more fat there is at the back of the ear compared to the front, and see the layers of skin, fat, and cartilage. When I sat up and saw my ears I immediately smiled. After my friend and I left the shop, I jumped up and down with glee, like a little kid in a candy shop, singing "I am so happy!"

Right now they are a bit sore, as is expected. My right ear feels a bit more swollen than my left, probably due to the difficult stretching. I got H2Ocean to clean them, which I've never used before. Luckily I sleep on my back, so that will hopefully help out with the healing. There hasn't been any bleeding other than what occurred at the shop. I scar pretty easily so I hope the punches don't get hypertrophic scarring. In two weeks I will go in for a jewelry change and downsizing, as I have temporary plastic plugs in. I will probably switch to glass plugs as they are good for healing. Christiane is amazing and I would recommend her to anyone who is in Scandinavia.

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submitted by: Anonymouson: 28 Sept. 2008in
Ear Piercing

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Artist: ChristianeStudio: PinpointLocation: Oslo%2C+Norway

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